[nimona] [some unrelated spoilers within] okay but this proves that Nimona and She-Ra take place in the same universe

The thing I keep coming back to is how Gloreth's first reaction to Nimona's abilities was to look around and check whether there would be consequences for interacting with her.

She wasn't afraid of the shapeshifter. She was very afraid of becoming outcast by association.

...oh man that is an amazing cameo

Right? I'm giggling so much in between having feels about how kids are socialized to reject differences their caretakers are uncomfortable with.

Very on board with having a Stevenson Extended Universe.

But yeah my brain keeps associating how young movie!Bal and Am are and how the "serve the system and it will keep you alive" environment they were raised in goes back to before Gloreth. She was ready to be censured and have unacceptable behavior corrected as a condition for being allowed to live as a child of that culture.

She acted the way children act when this is how everyone in their life has been raised and has taught them to expect to be raised.

And there's Bal right there with the "can't you be normal, it would be easier that way," honestly meaning easier for her and not understanding how much of it is knowing that if she won't be normal, he will have to face how he feels about others' reactions to her.

Am was probably socialized even harder that way because descendent of Gloreth etc.

It would be really hard to other him, and we can see how deep it all went anyway from how even though he was the golden child, other people felt perfectly comfortable othering his partner right in front of him, knowing that if he objected he would be seen as unreasonable (which is why Bal stops him).

Am's growth parallels Bal's, about two steps behind.

"It would be easier if you looked human." "Everything can go back to the way it was."

So it's even more painful that he confronts Nimona with the scroll after "then you never knew me at all."

Brain is made of cheese rn and there's so much more to say about this, but I'm sure it's being said somewhere.